WASHINGTON—The number of Americans filing new claims for jobless benefits rose last week, but the level remains historically low.

Initial jobless claims, a proxy for layoffs across the U.S. economy, increased by 10,000 to a seasonally adjusted 281,000 in the week ended June 27, the Labor Department said Thursday.

Economists surveyed by The Wall Street Journal had expected 270,000 new claims last week. Jobless claims can be volatile from week to week.

“We are especially wary of taking much signal from the weekly changes reported around holidays like July 4,” J.P. Morgan economist Daniel Silver said in a note to clients. “And even with the latest increase in claims, the trend in the data remains consistent with a relatively low level of layoffs.”

The four-week moving average for initial claims, which evens out weekly volatility, ticked up by 1,000 to 274,750.

The level of claims for the prior week was unrevised at 271,000. The Labor Department said no special factors affected the latest claims data.

Claims have been generally falling since 2009 and have held below the psychological threshold of 300,000 for 17 straight weeks.

That streak “makes it very clear that the underlying trend in layoffs is very low and stable, and consistent with robust payroll growth,” said Pantheon Macroeconomics chief economist
Ian Shepherdson.

Mr. Shepherdson noted claims could rise over the next few weeks amid auto makers’ annual summer shutdowns. “With sales strong, auto makers have reduced the scope of their shutdowns compared to normal so claims ought to decline, but we’re prepared for just about anything,” he said, adding the numbers should stabilize by early August.

Low jobless claims can be a sign of health in the labor market. Hiring slowed in early 2015, but has rebounded over the past few months. The unemployment rate has also moved lower, and the number of long-term unemployed workers and those stuck in part-time jobs has declined.

“While these developments represent considerable progress toward strengthening of the labor market, some room remains for further improvement,” Federal Reserve Vice Chairman
Stanley Fischer
said in a speech Tuesday. “There are grounds for optimism that economic growth will be sufficient to promote further gains in labor market conditions.”

The economy added 223,000 jobs in June and the unemployment rate fell to 5.3%, according to a separate Labor Department report released Thursday.

Thursday’s report on jobless claims also showed the number of people filing continuing claims for unemployment benefits increased by 15,000 to 2.3 million for the week ended June 20. Continuing claims are reported with a one-week lag.